Winners of the 2020 IFComp

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1st place (tie)

The Impossible Bottle

Cover art for The Impossible Bottle

Linus Åkesson

Housework is only as dull as your imagination. Join Emma, six years old, on a playful adventure of peculiar proportions.

Merciful puzzlefest. Parser or point-and-click, as you please. Web (including mobile) or Z-machine.

Two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.12
Votes Cast 49
Standard Deviation 1.51

1st place (tie)

Tavern Crawler
A story about what happens AFTER you slay the dragon.

Cover art for Tavern Crawler

Josh Labelle @JoshMLabelle joshmlabelle@cogsandspanners.com

When you and your companions are approached by a man in a tavern who offers you more gold than you could spend in one lifetime to slay a dragon, you're torn. The money would buy you out from under the boot of the tyrannical queen. You'd never want for anything again. But do you schmucks really stand a chance against a dragon? And what did this dragon do to deserve being slayed, anyway? Your instructions are simple. Travel to the cave. Chop off the dragon's head. Bring it to Akema, the village at the base of the mountains. Meet your patron in a tavern to collect your spoils.

If only you hadn't been too drunk to remember exactly WHICH tavern you were supposed to meet him in. Now, you'll have to journey from tavern to tavern looking for him. An inn full of yearning hearts and true believers. A burlesque house full of cutthroats and intrigue. A dive bar where you're likely to walk out with fewer digits than you walked in with. As you uncover the strange secrets of Akema, you begin to realize you've been lied to, set up. Can you unravel the mystery and get out from under before last call?

Screwball noir fantasy • One hour • Choice-based

This work also won 2nd place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 8.12
Votes Cast 52
Standard Deviation 1.19

3rd place

Vain Empires

Cover art for Vain Empires

Thomas Mack and Xavid vain.empires@gmail.com

The memoir of a demonic spy in the Cold War between Heaven and Hell.

Espionage, fantasy, light comedy, puzzle-based • An hour and a half • Parser-based

This work also won 3rd place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.98
Votes Cast 45
Standard Deviation 1.39

4th place

Limerick Quest

Cover art for Limerick Quest

Pace Smith @PaceSmith pace@pacesmith.com

"To Russia!" you boldly suggest.

"This riddle has got me obsessed.

We'll search 'til we're blind,

and loot what we find!

Let's go on a...

Adventure • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.77
Votes Cast 48
Standard Deviation 1.46

5th place

The Magpie Takes the Train
Authorized Sequel to Alias 'The Magpie' by JJ Guest

Cover art for The Magpie Takes the Train

Mathbrush rainbus.north@gmail.com

A millionaire guards a fabulous ruby in her private train car. Countless thieves have failed to steal it. But they weren't the Magpie!

Heist • One hour • Parser-based

This work also won 1st place in the 2020 Miss Congeniality Awards.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.75
Votes Cast 67
Standard Deviation 1.30

6th place

The Eleusinian Miseries

Cover art for The Eleusinian Miseries

Mike Russo russo2116@gmail.com

Well, isn't this a lark! After solid years of going after old Alky to let you in on that Mysteries wheeze of his, at last tonight's the night. He's dragged you from Athens to Eleusis for the to-do, but no sooner had you clapped eyes on the wine and canapés than he informed you of a spot of work in need of doing.

You've heard of work, you're sure you'll be good at it!

Semi-historical farce • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.60
Votes Cast 43
Standard Deviation 1.45

7th place

A Rope of Chalk

Cover art for A Rope of Chalk

Ryan Veeder @rcveeder rcveeder@me.com

An account of the disastrous sidewalk chalk tournament of August 27, 2011.

An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.59
Votes Cast 70
Standard Deviation 1.74

8th place (tie)

A Murder In Fairyland
Sugarplums and foul play.

Cover art for A Murder In Fairyland

Abigail Corfman beautiful.lightness@gmail.com

Prince Blacktree is dead.

All of the other fairy nobles are trying to claim credit.

A whodunit where the suspects are clamoring to be accused.

Fantasy mystery • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.35
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.74

8th place (tie)

Stuff of Legend
A Lazy Medieval Comedy of Errors

Cover art for Stuff of Legend

Lance Campbell lkcampbell@gmail.com

The only thing worse than being a village idiot is being an unemployed village idiot.

Maybe it’s time to change careers. Maybe it’s time to be a knight.

Fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.35
Votes Cast 48
Standard Deviation 1.31

10th place

Sense of Harmony
A Prelude

Cover art for Sense of Harmony

Scenario World brwarner2@gmail.com

Cybernetically enhanced Elizabeth Boldan tries to find herself while working part-time at the Crown Diamond, an erotic massage parlor and brothel in the year 2029. On television and in the movies, cybernetics promise enhanced intelligence, strength, or speed. For Elizabeth, it's a cursed hyper-awareness of how everybody feels. Navigate an interaction with one of her regulars, get to know her coworkers, and meet a mysterious stranger.

A prelude to future mysteries.

Science Fiction • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.31
Votes Cast 52
Standard Deviation 1.53

11th place (tie)

Flattened London

Cover art for Flattened London

Carter Gwertzman carterxgwe@gmail.com

Unravel the secrets of the third dimension and search for treasure in a wholly bizarre setting — a crossover between the worlds of Fallen London and Flatland. Keep your wits about you in this sprawling parser-based game, and remember: There's no such thing as down.

Two-Dimensional • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.16
Votes Cast 45
Standard Deviation 1.53

11th place (tie)

Doppeljobs
In today's economy even doppelgangers need to hustle!

Cover art for Doppeljobs

Lei lei@actualroleplaying.com

You are a young doppelganger, fresh out of School of Humanity, finally realizing your life-long dream to own a human-centric business. You offer a unique service: imitation on demand, living through situations the humans would rather pass on. Embarrassing? Shameful? Boring? You can experience all those feelings on behalf of your clients, while they enjoy their day, unbothered, somewhere far away.

Change into others! Learn the secrets of the City of Sand! Avoid foreclosure!

Weird • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.16
Votes Cast 57
Standard Deviation 1.24

13th place

Vampire Ltd
A Corporate Espionage Adventure (with Vampires In It)

Cover art for Vampire Ltd

Alex Harby @wisprabbit alexjharby@gmail.com

Nero Brashov, vampire and failed businessman, has revenge on his mind. He'll pose as a human, infiltrate his arch-enemy's corporation, and sabotage it from the inside. Just as soon as he's invited in, that is.

Contains swearing from the start, so may not be suitable for playing with children. Download version comes with the Inform 7 source code.

Comedy • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.10
Votes Cast 71
Standard Deviation 1.29

14th place

Alone

Cover art for Alone

Paul Michael Winters paulseawa@gmail.com

Just you and your car, alone on the open road. You haven't seen another car for weeks. You haven't spoken to another person in months. And if you want to stay alive, you'd better keep it that way.

Apocalyptic Horror • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.08
Votes Cast 60
Standard Deviation 1.44

15th place

Sage Sanctum Scramble

Cover art for Sage Sanctum Scramble

Arthur DiBianca a_dibianca@yahoo.com

A grab bag of puzzles, mostly word puzzles. Collect keywords and save the Sanctum!

Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.03
Votes Cast 80
Standard Deviation 1.59

16th place (tie)

Lore Distance Relationship
Welcome to the 2000s.

Cover art for Lore Distance Relationship

Naomi Norbez (call me Bez, he/they) @NaomiNorbez mninorbez@gmail.com

Follow user StaircaseHaven14 on a Neopets-esque site called Ruffians as she faces life's challenges, RPs with her long-distance BFF (or more than BFF?) Bee, and encounters familial hardship, from age 8 to 18.

Note: I got a report that the browser version doesn't load some pictures, making it impossible to complete. Please consider downloading the game instead, to avoid issues.

Also, reviews please take note: https://twitter.com/NaomiNorbez/status/1317206992855965698?s=20

Romance, Realistic Fiction, Slice-of-life • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.00
Votes Cast 28
Standard Deviation 1.89

16th place (tie)

Captivity

Cover art for Captivity

Jim Aikin midiguru23@gmail.com

Locked in a tower in a castle by an evil duke — how annoying. And you’re not even a princess! Duke Esteban is demanding an outrageous ransom of your well-born and well-meaning but cash-strapped parents, a sum that they have no hope of paying. He knows that. His real goal is — well, they call it ravishment, but that word is far too refined to describe what’s going to happen to you in a few hours, when the deadline passes and no fat bags of gold have arrived. The only surprising part is that you haven’t been ravished already, only leered at. (Duke Esteban has surely practiced his leer in front of a mirror.)

Puzzle-oriented fantasy. • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 7.00
Votes Cast 39
Standard Deviation 1.13

18th place

Congee

Cover art for Congee

Becci r.chui@hotmail.co.uk

A short story about food, belonging, and seeking home. Text your friend, call your mum, and search for congee on this rainy night.

Cozy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.98
Votes Cast 87
Standard Deviation 1.37

19th place

Red Radish Robotics

Cover art for Red Radish Robotics

Gibbo @GibboCreations gibbo@gibbocreations.com

On the seventh floor of HQ, the professor rushed into the games room as people yelled and slammed doors in the corridor outside. He hugged you to sleep. That is your last memory. You wake to discover that something terrible must have occurred. In the event of an emergency, your mission is to search the rooms, rescue your colleagues, and then meet the professor outside. But things seem different tonight.

Red Radish Robotics is a web-based work of interactive fiction, combining a dystopian sci-fi short story with an escape game.

Dystopian sci-fi • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.93
Votes Cast 29
Standard Deviation 1.34

20th place

Shadow Operative

Cover art for Shadow Operative

Michael Lauenstein sideburns3000@gmail.com

Another run. Another dive into the neon sea.

A Cyberpunk Heist Game.

Parser-based but with a hybrid interface (playable by typing or by links alone). Best played online on this site with the "Play Online" button below, using a desktop browser (or a tablet in wide-screen landscape mode).

Cyberpunk • Two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.92
Votes Cast 39
Standard Deviation 1.21

21st place

Ulterior Spirits

Cover art for Ulterior Spirits

E.J. Holcomb admin@explorasaur.us

On a peaceful multispecies space station, an aging admiral is haunted by strange messages and visions of a long-dead enemy. "A Christmas Carol" meets "Mass Effect"... with bonus evil cat aliens!

Science Fiction • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.91
Votes Cast 23
Standard Deviation 1.64

22nd place

Ascension of Limbs

Cover art for Ascension of Limbs

AKheon @AKheon

You are an antique store proprietor trying to make ends meet. Use your wits, manage your resources, play the hand you are dealt.

This game features a story with multiple endings, achievements as well as an unique style of gameplay that is inspired by roguelite and card-based games.

Horror / simulation • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.89
Votes Cast 46
Standard Deviation 1.70

23rd place

Ferryman's Gate

Cover art for Ferryman's Gate

Daniel Maycock demaycock@mailfence.com

Your punctuation-obsessed uncle has died, leaving your family his house, but leaving you, a mere kid, with his unfinished business. As you follow the clues left by your uncle, you quickly discover that while there's only one way to finish the job, there are several ways to die.

An atmospheric parser game with puzzles and portals to hidden worlds. (It's also a thinly-veiled attempt to teach comma rules without feeling "educational.")

Experimental, educational • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.84
Votes Cast 55
Standard Deviation 1.39

24th place

Happyland
an interactive murder mystery

Cover art for Happyland

Rob Fitzel @RobFitzel rfitzel@gmail.com

A theme park executive dies on a rollercoaster.

Was it an accident? Was it foul play?

Grab your crime fighting kit and gather your wits

to investigate why all is not happy in Happyland.

Murder mystery • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.83
Votes Cast 23
Standard Deviation 1.58

25th place

Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos

Cover art for Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos

Robb Sherwin & Mike Sousa

There was an aye-aye behind the bar, staring at me horribly. Or maybe its face just froze that way. I was waiting for my client at ten at night in a dusty, dirty town in the middle of nowhere. Clouds out here were apparently one of the thirty million newly unemployed. There was a missing woman and my client was about to hire an amateur private detective with the world's most technologically advanced cellular phone. This was going to be a cinch. Seriously. It'll take me like two searches with it to close this case. Three if mid-investigation I check on my torrents.

Y-You're a player of the 2020 Interactive Fiction competition. I'm Jay. Let's straddle the edge.

Detective • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.69
Votes Cast 35
Standard Deviation 1.54

26th place

Entangled

Cover art for Entangled

Dark Star darkstar@infodarkness.com

Caught up in a time-travel experiment gone wrong, the actions you perform in the past will ripple forward in time. Can you find your way back without unraveling the universe? A small town stirs in your wake.

Slice-of-life • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.65
Votes Cast 37
Standard Deviation 1.34

27th place

Academic Pursuits (As Opposed To Regular Pursuits)

Cover art for Academic Pursuits (As Opposed To Regular Pursuits)

ruqiyah @pettyantics ub4q.if@gmail.com

Dear Ms. ████████

We are delighted to offer you a position in our architecture department. After your application and interview we are confident you will really sink your teeth into this role.

Your new office will be ready for you to move in next week. You are encouraged to make the space your own.

P.S. I understand you are acquainted with one of our most esteemed professors. Per your request, your employment is yet to be publicly announced. I trust it will make for a heartening reunion.

Moving-in sim • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.62
Votes Cast 74
Standard Deviation 1.50

28th place

Little Girl In Monsterland

Cover art for Little Girl In Monsterland

Maurizio Colucci @LittleGirl_inMo littlegirlinmonsterland@gmail.com (writing as “Mike Stallone”)

Follow the adventures of two six-year-old girls with too much time on their hands as they go on a mission to defeat dangerous monsters, extremely competitive bodybuilders, and hyperinflation. -- Keywords: comedy, point and click, open world, puzzles, Dracula, Frankenstein, evil wizard, evil bodybuilders, pirates, dragon, witch, graphical map, 10 hours long, strange interface, hint system, multilanguage (English / Italian).

Comedy, point and click, open world • Longer than two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.50
Votes Cast 26
Standard Deviation 2.39

29th place

Electric word, "life"

Cover art for Electric word,

Lance Nathan tahnan@suberic.net

It's 1999, and your roommate has talked you into hosting a Halloween party. It's pretty much going to be all his friends, but you've invited a few of your own who may or may not make it. Here's hoping for the best.

Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.48
Votes Cast 44
Standard Deviation 1.70

30th place

The Eidolon's Escape

Cover art for The Eidolon's Escape

Mark Clarke @clarkemywords clarkemywords@gmail.com

For untold years you have been trapped, a spirit without a body, incarcerated by an evil mage. Finally your chance has come to free yourself and escape. Run wild in a body-swapping, race against time to escape the tower before sun-up. Can you free the Eidolon in time?

Fantasy • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.45
Votes Cast 31
Standard Deviation 1.46

31st place (tie)

Babyface
Faciem Larva, Oculi, Rictu, Spiritum

Cover art for Babyface

Mark Sample @samplereality samplereality@gmail.com

We are haunted by the houses of our childhood. How unfamiliar they are, when we return. Yet you never forget, do you? You never really forget.

A Southern Gothic horror story. Remember, of all the masks we wear, it's the final one that matters.

Horror • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.43
Votes Cast 51
Standard Deviation 2.03

31st place (tie)

Chorus

Cover art for Chorus

Skarn @Skarn_TG

Chorus is a non-profit organization with the purpose of improving everyday life in our city. We encourage cooperation between all, regardless of age, gender, mass, volume, morphism, mode of locomotion, venomousness, body chemistry, phasing, plane of origin.

Join us today and meet people whose existence you had never imagined.

Urban fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.43
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.51

33rd place (tie)

Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder

Cover art for Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder

Zan and Xavid seasons@xavid.us

As cities around the world turn to ash, the Federal Bureau of Druids sends you back in time to the autumnal equinox to stop the Order of the Fiery Doom. Find plants for your mystical cocoon and travel to different seasons. Will you be able to avert the apocalypse?

Cover art by N. Santore (https://twitter.com/gyrium).

Fantasy • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.41
Votes Cast 44
Standard Deviation 1.37

33rd place (tie)

How The Elephant's Child Who Walked By Himself Got His Wings
A Choose Your Own Just So Story

Cover art for How The Elephant's Child Who Walked By Himself Got His Wings

Peter Eastman

This fantasia on Kipling's "Just So Stories" takes you back to the High and Far-Off Times to learn how all things came to be what they are today.

Warning: Contains bad poetry.

Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.41
Votes Cast 27
Standard Deviation 1.77

35th place

Lovely Assistant: Magical Girl

Cover art for Lovely Assistant: Magical Girl

Bitter Karella @bitterkarella thenewmeat@hotmail.com

A magician's assistant has two very important duties, to point at things and to look good in a form-fitting evening gown. But when Mugwort the Magician is kidnapped by his devious riddle-obsessed arch-nemesis and imprisoned somewhere on his opulent magician's estate with no way to find him other than a series of obtuse riddles, it's up to consummate magician's assistant Trixie to save the day!

Comedy • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.40
Votes Cast 60
Standard Deviation 1.61

36th place

Turbo Chest Hair Massacre

Cover art for Turbo Chest Hair Massacre

Joey Acrimonious jwyn42@gmail.com

You are a young woman about to meet your girlfriend for (what you hope will be) a fun and sexy night on the town. But first, you have an important mission: to shave your chest hair.

Saucy romp • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.33
Votes Cast 45
Standard Deviation 1.76

37th place

The Cursèd Pickle of Shireton

Cover art for The Cursèd Pickle of Shireton

Hanon Ondricek @hanonondricek hanon.ondricek@gmail.com

Evil, sealed away for Aeons, has been released.

Fantasy/Comedy RPG • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.31
Votes Cast 29
Standard Deviation 2.14

38th place

High Jinnks

Cover art for High Jinnks

M. Nite Chamberlain mnitechamberlain@gmail.com

You're a jinni whose only talent is petty magic tricks. And now you're looking for a way home, accompanied by possibly the most infuriating human to have walked this earth, and trying to avoid getting trapped in any more jars.

One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.26
Votes Cast 38
Standard Deviation 1.29

39th place

The Brutal Murder of Jenny Lee

Cover art for The Brutal Murder of Jenny Lee

Daniel Gao danwcgao@gmail.com

You are sent back in time to investigate a 17-year-old mystery. Who murdered Jenny Lee?

Mystery • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.21
Votes Cast 24
Standard Deviation 1.53

40th place

Ghostfinder: Shift
Ghostfinder Series One: First Impressions

Cover art for Ghostfinder: Shift

Han-Joo Kim hanjookim92@yahoo.com

In a world where magic is real and mind-bending nightmares lie waiting in the least expected places, the Fraternal Order of Ghostfinders, an international society of elite occult investigators, is humanity's strongest line of defense against the unspeakable horrors of the void. When your protege, a novice ghostfinder named Cyra, accidentally becomes embroiled in a hunt for a serial killer, you must use every means at your disposal to catch him before he catches her. A detective mystery game with a strong focus on piecing together clues and leads.

Mystery, Horror • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.15
Votes Cast 26
Standard Deviation 1.83

41st place

For a Place by the Putrid Sea

Cover art for For a Place by the Putrid Sea

Arno von Borries

At some point, going back would have been inevitable anyway. And why should I not have been allowed a bit of rest? After all, no one could say I hadn't tried to run. But when you're running, you need to stop eventually, or else you risk running into people.

Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.11
Votes Cast 28
Standard Deviation 1.84

42nd place (tie)

Mother Tongue
How to learn Tagalog in just one awkward conversation with your mom a day

Cover art for Mother Tongue

Nell Raban @nell_do_well nellraban@gmail.com

You're sitting at home, minding your business, when your mom texts you. It's a familiar situation. But when the chat turns nostalgic, how do you reconcile her regrets about how she raised you with your own needs? Do you just indulge her, or do you take this opportunity to forge a deeper relationship with your family and your heritage?

Slice of life • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.07
Votes Cast 71
Standard Deviation 1.68

42nd place (tie)

Tragic

Cover art for Tragic

Jared Jackson jaredj@mac.com

It's a game within a game within a game.

Come see what the cards hold in store for you.

Rogue-lite deck builder • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.07
Votes Cast 14
Standard Deviation 1.71

44th place

Dr Ego and the egg of Man-Toomba

Cover art for Dr Ego and the egg of Man-Toomba

Wesley Werner wesley.werner@gmail.com (writing as “Special Agent”)

You are Dr Ego, purveyor of artifacts, seeker of treasure, and adventurous archeologist. You explore the jungles of Papua New Guinea with hopes to find a mysterious artifact - the golden egg of Man-Toomba.

Adventure • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.02
Votes Cast 42
Standard Deviation 1.74

45th place

A Catalan Summer
An interactive catalan novel

Cover art for A Catalan Summer

Neibucrion @Neibucrion neibucrion@astreetstory.com

It's the summer of 1920.

Things are going well in Catalonia for the wealthy Vidal family : the Great War just ended that allowed them to greatly improve their profits.

But these are modern times full of freedom and passions... Will the Vidal Clan survive to this new Age?

Historical gay melodrama • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 6.00
Votes Cast 32
Standard Deviation 1.37

46th place

The Moon wed Saturn

Cover art for The Moon wed Saturn

Pseudavid @pseudavid

Two girls and a simple, if peculiar, love story where not much seems to happen.

The Moon wed Saturn is a short narrative experiment. Computer or tablet is recommended.

Romance • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.94
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 1.68

47th place

The Call of Innsmouth

Cover art for The Call of Innsmouth

Tripper McCarthy tripperm@hotmail.com

People warned me about being a private dick in Arkham, Massachusetts. Sure, I’d heard the stories of monsters, cults, and other bizarre happenings in this old New England town. My take? The world is scary enough without help from the supernatural.

It wouldn’t be until a mother walked through my door looking for her missing son that I realized how wrong I was.

A prequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, live the adventure of detective Jack DuVrey as he investigates a case of mystery and madness.

Will you survive, The Call of Innsmouth?

Horror • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.89
Votes Cast 36
Standard Deviation 1.79

48th place

The Copyright of Silence

Cover art for The Copyright of Silence

Ola Hansson ola@athleticdesign.se

A chamber play in a board game. Short play-through time, but victory will require plenty of replaying.

You are visiting John Cage, the composer. Use stealth to navigate his apartment as well as his arguments. You’ve heard them all before … Sometimes a man would be wise to shut up!

One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.86
Votes Cast 35
Standard Deviation 1.46

49th place (tie)

Captain Graybeard's Plunder

Cover art for Captain Graybeard's Plunder

Julian Mortimer Smith @julianmortsmith julianmortimersmith@gmail.com

A retired pirate captain cobbles together a ship and crew from the pages of classic works of literature. His goal: revenge!

Pirate • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.83
Votes Cast 77
Standard Deviation 1.64

49th place (tie)

BYOD
A micro interactive fiction.

Cover art for BYOD

n-n @no2nsense no2nsense@gmail.com

You are starting your IT internship. The details you got from the university are scarce: just the address and the date (today).

Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.83
Votes Cast 65
Standard Deviation 1.74

51st place

Phantom
An Opera in Three Acts

Cover art for Phantom

Peter Eastman

You have recently begun taking lessons from a new voice teacher. Under his expert instruction, your opera career is flourishing. If only he would let you see his face.

This work includes music which is an important part of the experience. Be sure you have sound turned on.

Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.82
Votes Cast 38
Standard Deviation 1.65

52nd place

What the Bus?
A Transit Nightmare

Cover art for What the Bus?

E. Joyce eejoyce02@gmail.com

Your commute is simple enough. Or at least, it should be. But today, the entire public transportation system seems to have it out for you--and is it just you, or does the geography keep... shifting?

Comedy; Surreal • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.80
Votes Cast 51
Standard Deviation 1.53

53rd place

Deelzebub

Cover art for Deelzebub

Morgan Elrod-Erickson, Skyler Grandel, and Jan Kim skylergrandel@gmail.com

Reginald is your average former soap-sniffer: thirty-two, dumped, and unemployed. You are a voice inside his head. Summon demons, bake cookies, and decide the fate of the Hidden Hills Sanctuary.

Comedy, Puzzle, Multiple Endings • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.76
Votes Cast 33
Standard Deviation 1.61

54th place

Minor Arcana

Cover art for Minor Arcana

Jack Sanderson Thwaite @jay_ess_tee

You have many faces. Your form is multiple. You are the cards. Created many years ago, infused with dark magic, you have seen many things. What secrets do you contain? What visions have you conjured up? How will you nudge the hands of fate?

Arcane fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.74
Votes Cast 53
Standard Deviation 1.59

55th place

The Land Down Under
Mrs. Wobbles & The Tangerine House

Cover art for The Land Down Under

The Marino Family markcmarino@gmail.com

Through a glass in the floor of the Tangerine House, Lin has marveled at the perfect miniature world of The Land Down Under. But when her two foster siblings go missing, Lin must pursue them into this world only to learn the price of perfection.

Fantasy, young adult/children • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.66
Votes Cast 29
Standard Deviation 1.90

56th place

"Terror in the Immortal's Atelier" by Gevelle Formicore

Cover art for

Gevelle Formicore thewatersupply@gmail.com

Chirlu the Immortal has menaced the Land of Teresten for too long! Locked inside the sorcerer's atelier, inside the Ilfane, is the source of Chirlu's power: The Knot, where all mana connects. Get ready, young adventurer -- learning the magic to crack the Ilfane won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.58
Votes Cast 31
Standard Deviation 1.81

57th place

You Couldn't Have Done That

Cover art for You Couldn't Have Done That

Ann Hugo

Your first day on the job wasn't going to be pleasant. Such was inevitable. It's a big change. And, you are autistic.

But this was a different story, far worse than unpleasant.

Drama • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.46
Votes Cast 69
Standard Deviation 1.74

58th place

"Incident! Aliens on the Teresten!" by Tarquin Segundo

Cover art for

Tarquin Segundo thewatersupply@gmail.com

The scientist Chirlu created The Knot to be a source of peace and prosperity for the galaxy. But a routine training mission turned into terror when the bloodthirsty Ilfane attacked. Get ready, young space cadet -- surviving the Ilfane invasion won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.39
Votes Cast 36
Standard Deviation 1.95

59th place (tie)

The Incredibly Mild Misadventures of Tom Trundle
An Adolescent Reminiscence

B F Lindsay ragtimebill@outlook.com

"A frickin' important episode in my life." -- Tom Trundle, 17

Teen adventure/romance • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.37
Votes Cast 27
Standard Deviation 2.06

59th place (tie)

Deus Ex Ceviche

Cover art for Deus Ex Ceviche

Tom Lento, Chandler Groover weirdkarmastudios@gmail.com

Something fishy is happening in the Section B-2 Temple.

Piscespunk • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.37
Votes Cast 49
Standard Deviation 1.59

59th place (tie)

"Adventures in the Tomb of Ilfane" by Willershin Rill

Cover art for

Willershin Rill thewatersupply@gmail.com

Millennia ago, the Autarch Ilfane used a magical artifact called The Knot to bring the Teresten people to an era of prosperity. Now, the Nazi archaeologist Doktor Chirlu seeks its power. Get ready, Professor Adventure -- solving the riddles of the Tomb of Ilfane won't be easy, but you can't let The Knot fall into the wrong hands!

Remember, no knot unties itself. You may need to seek aid from an unusual place.

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.37
Votes Cast 35
Standard Deviation 1.77

62nd place

Trusting My Mortal Enemy?! What a Disaster!
An action-filled comedy of supervillainous proportions.

Cover art for Trusting My Mortal Enemy?! What a Disaster!

Storysinger Presents storysingerpresents@gmail.com

When a hero & a villain start planning their battles over coffee, they come to trust each other more than they ever expected.

Superhero, Comedy, • An hour and a half

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.36
Votes Cast 39
Standard Deviation 1.87

63rd place

A Calling of Dogs

Cover art for A Calling of Dogs

Arabella Collins, Grey Havens mx.collins@outlook.com

You don't know where you are, or how you got here, but you do know you've been kidnapped.

Trapped in a cage, running out of options. What will you do?

Thriller/Horror • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.35
Votes Cast 54
Standard Deviation 1.90

64th place (tie)

Accelerate
The Apocalypse of Mother

Cover art for Accelerate

The TAV Institute mother@tav.institute

Release Note: We've been having some reports of players finding that the game stops, showing a blank screen, partway through the game. The most likely cause of this is having split the hosting between ifcomp.org and xlr8.zone. That should be fixed now, but if you think your internet might be spotty, or you want to be 100% sure you don't encounter any technical errors, please feel free to download a full local copy from https://xlr8.zone/download.zip.

Thanks, Venus Wormwood

--------

A multimedia project about the end of everything.

This is not a true story. Everything in it happened, and will. Any resemblance to actual events, or actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This is your last puzzle. This is your final warning. This game could be your life, and it might. It certainly may shatter you, for longer even than it did me, and into even more fragments.

Here is the church.

Here is the steeple.

Open all the doors.

Transform all the people.

Monomythic hypertextual gesamtkunstwerk • Two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.26
Votes Cast 23
Standard Deviation 2.27

64th place (tie)

The Cave
A Journey of Self-Discovery

Cover art for The Cave

Neil Aitken @neil_aitken

You wake up in the depths of a dark cave system and must find your way out. Contend with strange creatures. Lost treasures. Forgotten runes. Ancient magic. Faltering light sources. Fear. Loneliness. Existential angst. The last bit of hope. The nagging sense that nothing ever stays the same.

Who are you really in the dark?

15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.26
Votes Cast 65
Standard Deviation 1.71

66th place

Where the Wind Once Blew Free

Cover art for Where the Wind Once Blew Free

No Sell Out Productions redsunmagazine@gmail.com

The War of Ten Dogs is over. Jueyuan and his ten mongrel generals have been defeated. The veterans have returned home. Many return to the city of Mythicus at the heart of the World Tree. Others return to the Windless Prairie, or the southern border towns. They return to piece together what's left of their war-scarred lives, many wondering with every breath why they survived and their comrades didn't? You begin as Silver Bear. He has arrived at the border of the Windless Prairie, guided there by the spirit of his comrade, Snapping Turtle. Snapping Turtle was killed in action in the war while saving Silver Bear's life; now the bear has come to the prairie to repay the life debt. But Silver Bear soon discovers there is far more at stake than the debt he owes. Something has sickened the prairie, imprisoning the wind. Can Silver Bear and a cast of others free the wind? Will Silver Bear finally come to terms with his survivor's guilt and the death of Snapping Turtle? Only you can decide their fate...

Produced by No Sell Out Productions. Written by Southwest Underground Writing Krew: a collaboration of Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans scattered to the four winds across the Southwest United States who write about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Southwestern culture.

Crime-noir, drama, southwestern, magic realism • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.20
Votes Cast 25
Standard Deviation 2.00

67th place

Stoned Ape Hypothesis

Cover art for Stoned Ape Hypothesis

James Heaton @StingerStories admin@stingerstories.com

In the early 1990's, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna published his book "Food of the Gods" in which he presented a theory explaining the cognitive leap forward observed in early homo-sapiens. His theory is often referred to as the Stoned Ape Hypothesis.

Prehistoric Fiction • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 5.05
Votes Cast 76
Standard Deviation 1.31

68th place

Quintessence

Cover art for Quintessence

Andrea M. Pawley @andreapawley ifandrea2020@gmail.com

The Forever Cat stalks through this universe, collapsing it when the Others come close or shiny objects are too far apart. Will you end the Forever Cat's destructive cycle and help this universe's quanta join the multiverse?

Science Fiction • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.92
Votes Cast 37
Standard Deviation 1.98

69th place

Savor

Cover art for Savor

Ed

All you remember is that you're cursed. Cursed to spend every night writhing in pain. You've come here, to this desolate farmland, to find a cure. But now that you're here, you might find more than you wanted.

Suspense/Horror • One hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.91
Votes Cast 32
Standard Deviation 1.59

70th place (tie)

Desolation

Cover art for Desolation

Earth Traveler

You barely escaped your pursuers as you ran from the mansion. Now you must survive a vast, trackless desert with no food or water, and escape the grasp of a demonic cult...

Written as a sequel to "Two braids girl", which was not written by me.

Horror • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.87
Votes Cast 45
Standard Deviation 1.60

70th place (tie)

Stand Up / Stay Silent
A Fable

Cover art for Stand Up / Stay Silent

Y Ceffyl Gwyn yceffylgwyn@gmail.com

The revolution begins with you.

(cover art image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech from https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/viewing-the-red-planet - modified by the author)

Science fiction • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.87
Votes Cast 54
Standard Deviation 2.12

72nd place

Radicofani.

Cover art for Radicofani.

Rob ilroby@fastwebnet.it

"Why are you never here for me?" The usual obsessive question that never leaves my mind. I thought that our "part-time" story before your archeology degreee was the embryonic state of something more important, but your passion for the past has completely absorbed you. I always thought that a relationship was made of sharing life but,obviously, it's not like that for you (i can see you even now shaking your head and telling me to grow). Even having received the keys of you apartment in Milan did not make me less "ancillary" to your life. Damn keys! If only they could open your mind too. I could understrand if our relationship really interests you. I feel that even today our meeting will not take place. You're late...As usual!

ps: A jump into the past. An old-fashioned adventure (80's 90's.) to the present day.

Horror • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.86
Votes Cast 21
Standard Deviation 2.01

73rd place

The Wayward Story

Cover art for The Wayward Story

Ralfe Rich ibarra.cristmo@gmail.com (writing as “Cristmo Ibarra”)

It starts with you sitting down, eyes glued to your laptop as the credits roll on the penultimate episode of your favorite series. It's 2:00 AM on a weekday, and your bed's looking pretty good, but it's the season finale! It's the type of thing that'll keep you up at night!

Now, you are on a throne.

[Note: This game has a color mode that changes the text and background color during a playthrough; you can enable or disable it at the start of the game. There might be some interpreters that might not handle them well, so disabling them will put the game on the standard black on white.]

Surreal / Slice of life • An hour and a half

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.84
Votes Cast 32
Standard Deviation 1.64

74th place

The Pinecone

Cover art for The Pinecone

Joseph Pentangelo joseph.pentangelo@gmail.com

A breath born of boredom rises in the wintry sky. Hooves and bells approach. The school bus is late.

Flash fiction • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.82
Votes Cast 67
Standard Deviation 1.51

75th place

Under They Thunder
A parser game exploring the puzzle possibilities of pig latin.

Andrew Schultz @anandrewschultz blurglecruncheon@gmail.com

Save OkayCo from the Flame-Lame Fey and Ed Spray-Spread!

With thanks to my imaginary friends Amos and Abel Fay.

Wordplay, experimental • An hour and a half • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.75
Votes Cast 24
Standard Deviation 1.79

76th place

Quest for the Sword of Justice

Cover art for Quest for the Sword of Justice

Damon L. Wakes

It has been 100 years since the vile legions of Necroth were defeated. 100 years of years of peace and harmony. But a shadow grows in the frozen north, and dark forces assemble in the wilds and on the roads. Has the tyrant once again risen up to blight the land with his crimes?

In this time of wind and chaos, only one thing is certain: justice must be done.

Thanks to Kris Dikeman for playtesting.

Fantasy, comedy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.66
Votes Cast 47
Standard Deviation 2.36

77th place

(s)wordsmyth
Conversational combat simulator

Cover art for (s)wordsmyth

Tristan Jacobs tristanvjacobs@gmail.com

Built upon the intention of combining a choose-your-own-adventure game with a beat-em up, (s)wordsmyth is an unconventional, samurai-inspired, revenge story that includes sentient swords and yokai warriors. [Cover art by Elisa Moriconi & Anand Ramcheron]

Fantasy • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.65
Votes Cast 20
Standard Deviation 1.53

78th place

Tombs & Mummies

Cover art for Tombs & Mummies

Matthew Warner @MatthewWarnerVA

Your arch enemy has trapped you in the underground tomb of the Pharaoh Haputet. To escape, you must solve a puzzle before you run out of matches to reignite your torch. Watch out for snakes, mummies, and Egyptian curses!

Horror adventure puzzle • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.64
Votes Cast 22
Standard Deviation 1.87

79th place

The Turnip

Cover art for The Turnip

Joseph Pentangelo joseph.pentangelo@gmail.com

A hole-based economy and a venison-based diet. You and your dog. And a turnip.

Fantasy • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.57
Votes Cast 74
Standard Deviation 1.61

80th place

Passages

Jared W Cooper

These are all the weekends that will have passed when you read this.

Speculative • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.54
Votes Cast 50
Standard Deviation 1.97

81st place

The Arkhill Darkness

Cover art for The Arkhill Darkness

Jason Barrett blargh_bah@yahoo.com

The town of Arkhill has been under a mysterious Darkness and strange beasts. You have been hired to dispense of the beasts and investigate the cause of the Darkness. With the help of the remaining townfolk and your wizard aid, will you be able to lift the Darkness and save the town? Inspired by Fighting Fantasy and similar Gamebooks

Fantasy RPG • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.52
Votes Cast 31
Standard Deviation 1.39

82nd place

Big Trouble in Little Dino Park

Cover art for Big Trouble in Little Dino Park

Seth Paxton and Rachel Aubertin spaxton0492@gmail.com

Ever since cloning dinosaurs became the cheap, cool way to build a theme park there have been lots of them cropping up. Luckily, this one still had a position open for your summer job! Little Dino Park is a place of fun for the whole family, built with safety in mind. Finally, a summer job that you can really sink your teeth into!

Adventure • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.46
Votes Cast 41
Standard Deviation 1.38

83rd place

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Cover art for Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Kenneth Pedersen (writing as “Ilmur Eggert”)

The Royal Society, Gresham College, London, England, 4th of April 1673:

Isaac receives a mysterious letter...

.

COVER ART:

"Sir Isaac Newton" by John Faber Jr after John Michael Rysbrack. Mezzotint, (circa 1733)

NPG D3726 ( https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/use-this-image.php?mkey=mw37963 )

Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ )

Historical fantasy • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.37
Votes Cast 60
Standard Deviation 1.47

84th place

Just another Fairy Tale

Finn Rosenløv

Little did you know that when you went to bed that night, and your mom had kissed you good night and left you room, that you would embark on an adventure beyond your wildest dreams. An unexpected visit of a wizard sets things in motion, a kingdom in peril, an evil queen to be defeated, puzzles to be solved and YOU are the only hope.

Fantasy • Two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.31
Votes Cast 16
Standard Deviation 1.16

85th place

The Shadow In The Snow

Cover art for The Shadow In The Snow

Andrew Brown andythebrown@tiscali.co.uk

A strange and hopefully disturbing little story... (if you want to hear the musical score, unzip to the same folder and it should play)

Horror oppresive • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.29
Votes Cast 34
Standard Deviation 1.47

86th place

Return to Castle Coris
The Adventures of Alaric Blackmoon - Episode 8

Cover art for Return to Castle Coris

Larry Horsfield lazzah2000@hotmail.co.uk

The intrepid Duke has returned to Castle Coris, where he thwarted the Xixon sorcerer Zalazar's plan to destroy the world with a horde of demons from Hell (See THE SPECTRE OF CASTLE CORIS). The castle has been undergoing renovation by Baron Coris's heir, Thorion, who has found a mysterious tunnel leading from the cavern where Alaric fought the sorcerer and rescued the would-be sacrifice, Megan. A riding accident has prevented the Baron from investigating where the tunnel leads, so he invites Duke Alaric to explore the tunnel.

What mysteries await Alaric as he enters the tunnel? Find out in RETURN TO CASTLE CORIS!

Fantasy • Longer than two hours • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.25
Votes Cast 20
Standard Deviation 1.70

87th place

INFINITUBE
where the imagination stretches as far as limitations can reach

Cover art for INFINITUBE

Tom Charles Bair III @hurryingok tomcharlesbairthethird@gmail.com

INFINITUBE: where the imagination stretches as far as limitations can reach

Were you ever told you can be anything? Well, with INFINITUBE, you can be just that!

Maximalist • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.22
Votes Cast 18
Standard Deviation 1.65

88th place

Sheep Crossing

Cover art for Sheep Crossing

Andrew Geng @pteromelon

Sometimes you get an impulse you know you'd regret--especially in the face of an arbitrary task of questionable value. So when Grandmother asks you to bring her a cabbage, a sheep, and a stinky bear, what could possibly go wrong?

Humor • Half an hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.17
Votes Cast 63
Standard Deviation 1.44

89th place

Sonder Snippets
What Dadi Hears

Cover art for Sonder Snippets

N/A salimohamed07@yahoo.com

Dadi meanders gently through the gnarls of her brain to pick apart threads of memory from story. Replay multiple times for multiple endings...or the true beginnings, after all?

Nostalgia, fantasy, story, aging, whimsical • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.16
Votes Cast 32
Standard Deviation 1.87

90th place

Tangled Tales
A Fairy Tale like no other.

Cover art for Tangled Tales

JimJams Games jimjamsgames@gmail.com

Well, that must have been one hell of a party, at least that's what your body is telling you. Your memories of events are a little hazy at best, and exactly where you are and how you got here is a mystery. Still, you've got a road cone on your head, so it can't have been all bad.

Play Tangled Tales as either Cinderella or Prince Charming as you attempt to find your way back to the family castle in time for your friend's wedding, encountering all manner of rude, annoying and often unhelpful fairy tale folk, intent it seems, on hindering you.

Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Humour. • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.06
Votes Cast 17
Standard Deviation 1.63

91st place

Move on

Cover art for Move on

Serhii Mozhaiskyi @frenzytechnix sergei.mozhaisky@gmail.com

You are trying to escape with a mysterious briefcase, but your options are limited.​ Can you survive the chase?

Mobile friendly. No sound effects. Keep your eyes on the road.

Experimental • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 4.01
Votes Cast 68
Standard Deviation 1.62

92nd place

Creatures

Cover art for Creatures

Andreas Hagelin allvarsam@hotmail.com

As this dark adventure begins you find yourself bereft of both clothes and food in a cold prison cell. Will you solve the mysteries, slay the monsters and see the light of another day?

Puzzle RPG • Longer than two hours • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.73
Votes Cast 15
Standard Deviation 1.95

93rd place (tie)

Saint Simon's Saw
A Windows Executable

Cover art for Saint Simon's Saw

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson samthomson@btinternet.com

Saint-Simon’s Saw synthesizes different methods of splitting and reforming a narrated situation. It is named after the 18th Century social reformer, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, a minor French aristocrat who experienced both extreme success and colossal failure, and supported the American and French revolutions of the 18th Century. This game is intended as an aid for mediation, and for the envisaging of radical futures - a bit like a tarot deck.

Ambient Card Game • 15 minutes or less

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.65
Votes Cast 23
Standard Deviation 1.95

93rd place (tie)

Last House on the Block

Cover art for Last House on the Block

Jason Olson

Mr. Harrison was a quiet old man who lived in the house at the end of the block. No one really knew him, but everyone said he was rich; anyone who lived like as much like a hermit as he did *had* to be a millionaire. After lunch one day when you overheard your parents talking about how the old man had died with no family and how the city was coming to take the house and everything inside you decided on the spot that they wouldn't take *everything*...if there was any cash in there it was coming home with *you*.

Slice of life • One hour • Parser-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.65
Votes Cast 48
Standard Deviation 1.36

95th place

SOUND
finding your harmony

Cover art for SOUND

CynthiaP cynthia.peng@emory.edu

You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice You embark to find that voice

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.55
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.53

96th place

At Night
The night hides dangers

Cover art for At Night

Oscar @omrpps omrpps@gmail.com

When bedtime comes, you never know what will happen in the course of the next few hours. Dreams can turn into nightmares, you may not distinguish dreams from reality ...Sounds can fool us.

Do not expect a bed of roses, the old players make us suffer and despair ... But the end exists It would be appreciated to play with sound. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR BATTLES...

Adventure, experimental • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.51
Votes Cast 35
Standard Deviation 1.56

97th place

You Will Thank Me as Fast as You Thank a Werewolf

Cover art for You Will Thank Me as Fast as You Thank a Werewolf

B.J. Best @bjbest60 bjbest60@gmail.com

It began when my mother's goldfish died on the dining-room table. I was about to tell her how I lived; my girlfriend and I were about to see the Wauwatosa Thunderdivers. We were dancing on the beach; we were singing songs no one knew they had.

An experimental story about a lifelong romantic relationship.

Surreal • Half an hour • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.38
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.80

98th place

Amazing Quest

Cover art for Amazing Quest

Nick Montfort @nickmofo

Victorious at last, you now need to get yourself and your fleet back home. Decide as if it all depends on you, trust as if it all depends on the gods, and you will have an amazing quest...

15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.32
Votes Cast 87
Standard Deviation 1.94

99th place

The Place
where is it?

Cover art for The Place

CynthiaP cynthia.peng@emory.edu (writing as “Ima”)

Although this is an interactive interface, your choices do NOT matter. They really do not. Before you quit, I want you to understand why. I am a believer of absurdity, that our actions in the end have no meaninging in the interacting force between humans and universe. Choices lead you to different paths, but in the end, it's to a place where we share the common ground. But hey, life is about enjoying the journey, right? I hope you enjoy the choices being made along the way.

15 minutes or less

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.29
Votes Cast 52
Standard Deviation 1.62

100th place

#VanLife
How long can you survive #VanLife with only sunlight and solar power?

Cover art for #VanLife

Victoria @vcb20860594 vcb@stimsims.com

The first thought is always the same: ‘coffee’. The warm glow of the kettle fills the van as it comes to life at an enviable pace. Suddenly, with a snap, the lights shut off, the kettle dies with dignity, you bang your head on the counter. You forgot to check the solar systems battery charge again...

A snap of that sunrise should look inspiring enough to pay for the repairs, you hope.

How long will you survive #VanLife?

Educational • 15 minutes or less • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.24
Votes Cast 58
Standard Deviation 1.69

101st place

Equal-librium
Lion & Mouse?

Cover art for Equal-librium

Ima cynthia.peng@emory.edu

Every system, whether the economy or the ecosystem, has an equilibrium. When we keep extracting the resources, exploiting human moral bottom-lines, consuming carelessly, and ignoring small but essential part of the system chain, the system sends a feedback loop to break in most unexpected ways. The equilibrium has a balance based on the principle of equal-ibium.

A take on social critique • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.13
Votes Cast 45
Standard Deviation 1.13

102nd place

Fight Forever

Cover art for Fight Forever

Fight Forever fightforever@pm.me (writing as “Pako”)

Fighting is all that matters now.

Longer than two hours

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 3.12
Votes Cast 26
Standard Deviation 1.31

103rd place

Popstar Idol Survival Game

Cover art for Popstar Idol Survival Game

CrunchMasterGowon

Compete against other contestants to become star popstar idol!

Simulation, Romance. • An hour and a half • Choice-based

Play, download, or learn more about this game on the IFDB

Score 2.83
Votes Cast 40
Standard Deviation 1.38

The organizer of the 2020 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition was Jacqueline Ashwell.